entrepreneurial, support what works, expand what works and to change those broken things that need to be fixes. >> where do you begin? >> you begin with the community, and that's something that people need to understand. american education will never change if we wait on the white house to do it the state house to do it, city hall to do it. it has to be community people taking -- having a new compact, so to speak, with the school system. we do not have enough community involvement in education, we do not have enough parental involvement in education. what we've begun, i was meeting late last night with a group of new yorkers, to plan the largest ever community engagement effort to talking to parents, engaging neighborhood leaders and local businesses, what it will take to transform schools. >> we were talking earlier about where you can go, how you can get there in newark and across the country, for that matter. but in many neighborhoods, especially in newark, single-parent homes, working two jobs, they're not there when the

child gets home at night or the morning when they go off to school. how do you fix that piece of it? >> i've seen heroic commitment as among single mothers in newark. a woman shows up once a week to pick up homework packets though she's working job. the commitment and the hunger because we come from a family of a single mother or grandparents raising children, which we see a lot of, we can't let that be an excuse for newark. i can show you schools in newark that are better than surrounding schools that come from below the poverty line and exceeding in high levels. don't tell me that these issues are going to stop us from succeeding. we can no longer make excuses in america for the appalling failure we're seeing in so many of our school systems across the country. >> is mark zuckerberg going to be hands-on with money he's handing off? >> he said clearly, i'm a business leader, i'm not an education specialist. i want to put the money in, i'm going to hold you accountable

for the results we discussed, but he's not going to be in the mix. he's a great man who said my business i hire great leaders to get the job done. i found the city, he thought and the governor, frankly, committed to my values and he believes he can bring it home. he's not from newark. he has no relationship to our city but a lot of things of newark he believed, leadership at the state level, city level, also the local level, signs of success that we've had, innovations go on that are already extraordinary, that he wanted to be involved with. >> you heard the mayor of new york city take on teacher union say we are going to eliminate tenure, base it on merit, achievement. are you able to do the same thing in newark? >> the teachers union cannot be bashes, we can't start on the attack. we need to invite everybody to the table. but we're going to affirm what our community values are. let me tell you some things already. "wall street journal" had an article about a newark school, extraordinary young teacher, performing at incredible levels, but he was last one hires.

what happened? though some peer teachers were scoring low in evaluations he was the first one fired. that was a blow to our school, to our children, and it doesn't reflect the newark community standard. these are the things we need to have honest conversations. is this the best interest of a child that that extraordinary teacher should be kicked out of the system and we should be protecting teachers for not performing aas well? i think we can have community conversations in newark, we're going to take on unfinished business. the best schools in america have switched an equation that many of us believe in time is the constant, achievement is the variable. look at thick contracts time has talked about in so many different ways and achievement in america goes all over the place. the schools i see succeed treat teachers like professionals, pay them more but time is variable and achievement is the constant. if it takes saturday classes, i took mark zuckerberg to visit a saturday math class, all students were learning math at levels not exhibited in the rest of my city.

so we need to start challenging these fundamental presumptions about education and stick with what works and abandon what doesn't. and i think there's more of a community consensus in newark and america about these things than people suspect. >> mr. mayor, thank you very much. we'll be watching with an enormous amount of interest of turning around the newark city school school and see if you can get the rest of the challenge grant. what has been fascinating from this outside looking in you have a republican governor and a democratic mayor and mark zuckerberg, who represents the new generation of entrepreneurs finding a way to get together without shouting at each other. >> if our country pulls left to right we're never going to move forward. right now we're falling behind. >> thank you, cory booker. do i go back to you, chuck and savannah? >> thanks, tom. appreciate it. so a lot going on, education nation, important interviews all

day long. >> and tomorrow as well. >> we'll be live on education plaza interviewing the education secretary, arne duncan. we've have one of our own tonight right here on msnbc "last word with lawrence o'donnell" tonight 10:00 eastern. >> lawrence o'donnell adding msnbc host to his long list of accomplishments in washington and hollywood, and he joins us now. lawrence, i want to start with a question i posed to matthew dowd, former bush political adviser and it has to do with watching alan grayson, the democratic member of congress down there in a republican district. and i've been hearing from more and more democrats saying why aren't more democrats nationally channeling anger the way alan grayson does? >> it does seem to be working for him. but that is district by district judgment. it's also a personality issue. i mean a lot of the guys simply don't have that performance

level in them if you want to call it that. and they don't actually feel that way. i mean, alan grayson, within the democratic party, makes some of the most extreme statements within the democratic party about the other side. he's not somebody who is looking to forge a coalition with some republican on a subcommity to try to get a bill moving in a bipartisan way. a lot of the other people are. a lot of the other people try to work in the middle toward legislative targets do have to work with the other side. so it's -- you know, it's not a model that can be intimidated by everyone. >> where do you come down on this great debate within the democratic party whether to localize elections and run them race by race, or whether to nationalize the elections, the argument being republicans have already done that, they've already tried to make this a referendum on president obama, and if that's the case, perhaps democrats should respond in kind? where do you come down on it? >> they don't have a choice. it's been nationalized by the

economy. there is that famous james carville quote which remains in our heads because, you know, it's the economy, stupid. but the stupid part, using stupid as the direct address element, is important because there is nothing else that matters in an election like this. and in 1994 when the democrats lost everything, they lost the house, they lost the senate, no one saw it coming. there is no pundit who can raise his hand and say, i predicted that the republicans were going to win the house and the senate. all of the indicators now are worse. and the economy's much worse. the unemployment rate is 50% higher than it was when the democrats lost everything in '94. >> you know, you're interviewing vice president biden tonight. what is it? give us a teaser question here. what is an answer out of him that you're trying to get for your viewers tonight that you're thinking, you know what? i haven't heard this out of the obama/biden administration? >> he does have jurisdiction over looking over the stimulus

and how that is working, and so i want to find out from him not only how does he think it's working but why has the administration failed in trying to communicate its notion of what the stimulus has achieved. but the most important thing, probably, that we're going to get to tonight is that this is his first interview since bob woodward's book has come out detailing the war deliberations on afghanistan. i'm busy all day with my copy of the woodward, my bootlegged copy of the woodward book that i have to study while it's still embargoed so i can be up to speed on talking to the vice president how the administration has handled this all-important area. >> lawrence o'donnell "the last word" premieres tonight 10:00. who gets the last word? on other set, it's always chuck. >> you're right. >> take a wild gesser who gets the last word. >> i have an idea. i say it's izzy povich, you know that better than anybody.

>> that's a possibility. you have to stay with the show to find out who gets the last word. >> lawrence o'donnell, good luck with the show. we'll be watching. >> great addition to the lineup. >> that is it for "the daily rundown." next, richa liu. >> andrea mitchell. >> education nation continues all day and tomorrow. we'll see you up in new york city from education plaza. buh-bye. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? is a bird in the hand worth 2 in the bush? appraiser: well you rarely see them in this good of shape. appraiser: for example the fingers are perfect. appraiser: the bird is in mint condition. appraiser: and i would say if this were to go to auction today, appraiser: conservatively it would be worth 2 in the bush.

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our goal is to make all schools high quality schools. >> education nation kicks off on nbc news with the president weighing in on education reform. ahead this hour for you, making sure every child gets a quality education, no matter where they

live. stay down. heads down. >> heads down. imagine being on board hearing that and on this aircraft the broken landing gear was the situation. meet one of the passengers and hear about the heart-stopping experience. plus, the bishop accused of using his influence to coerce young men to have sex uses the pulpit to fight back. saturday night live takes on christine owe donele. >> thanks for having me. 6 okay. it's my pleasure. >> take care. good luck. >> thanks. good morning, i'm richard lui filling in for chris jansing. they're calling him the new captain sully. pilot captain jack conray keeps his cool as the landing gear fails and the emergency landing as it hammons. you can see the sparks plying out the window. hear the flight attendant

yelling. >> heads down. stay down. >> stay down, stay down. >> telling passengers to get down, despite the harrowing moments the plane touched down safely at new york's jfk airport and the 60 passengers on board have an amazing story to tell. nbc's tom costello has more. >> reporter: from inside a regional jet saturday night, the final harrowing moments as the pilot tells passengers to prepare for an emergency landing. >> brace for impact. >> reporter: and a warning from a deadly serious flight attendant. >> heads down. stay down. heads down. >> one lady in front of me is going into tears a little bit. another lady behind me is panicking. >> stay down. >> reporter: among the 60 passengers on board, chase and alessandro returning from a business trip. >> it became surreal, once the lady's yelling, the flight attendant was yelling. >> stay down. heads down. stay down. >> reporter: delta connection flight 4951, a twin engine

crj-900 flown by atlantic southeast airlines, was flying from atlanta to new york's white plains airport when the right landing gear refused to come down. realizing they may need a bigger airport, the pilots diverted to jfk, and asks controllers there to clear a runway. >> right gear is stuck up, the other two are down. >> the right gear is stuck up? okay. would you prefer a 3-1 left or right? >> when the landing gear's not coming down you know you're going to have an accident, for sure. the plane's going to swerve in the direction of the retracted gear. >> reporter: the delicate balancing act, putting the plane down on just two out of three landing gear. >> heads down. stay down. >> reporter: the few images from a cell phone captures sparks flying at plane's wing dragged along the cement. despite fuel on the wing, no fire. once out of the plane safely, relief. >> whoo!

>> nerves. >> reporter: and praise for the pilot who pulled it off. >> great job. no complaints from me. >> reporter: and from one curious passenger, a question about his interrupted troip white plains. >> we still get frequent flyer miles? >> you know what? >> let's go to james j. phifer, a passenger on the flight. thank you for speaking to us a day after this happens. tell us what you were hearing what you were feeling when this happened? >> first, i could hardly believe it. i thought we were doing some emergency landing because something was happening at the other airport and then when he began to us instructions about what to do, about a water landing how to brace ourselves i thought, oh, i think we have a problem here. so -- but the flight attendants went through and told us that we were going to be loonand and its

going to be very rough. they described -- they said that the landing gear was not coming down and the plane was going to tip to the right. so i -- the adrenaline was rushing, i have to say. >> no doubt. when i heard it, the video and the audio, it absolutely frightened me. i wasn't even in there. you seem very calm right now. but what were you doing at time? was your head down? were you looking out the window? what were you doing? >> well, i was next to the window, and i had the curtain open, as we approached the ground and then as the pilot said prepare for impact, i put the window down. i didn't think i needed to see that. >> no. >> i braces myself and started breathing pretty hard and then suddenly it was over. >> you made it out okay. i want to ask you this final question here, jamie. >> sure. >> they're calling him the new captain sully, sully sullenburg, who we all know so well. what would you say to the captain, jack conray?

what would you say to him if he was here today? >> i would say that he knew his job, he did it well, and he really took care of us. he did a wonderful, awesome job. we were all very greatful for what he date and how he and the crew really took care of all of the passengers. so i would give him a huge round of applause and i would fly with him anytime. >> you know, we often forget that it's so important what they do in the front of those airplanes. jamie phifer, glad you made it out okay and everything turns out well. >> thank you so much. glad to be here. >> you bet. with more than a month to go until the midst term elections, some democrats are hitting republican challengers and hitting them hard launching a barrage of negative attack ads. take a look at this one from alan grayson. >> religious fanatics try to take away our freedom from

afghanistan and iran and right here. daniel webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us. hands off our bodies and our laws. >> nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. negative campaigning is certainly nothing new, you know that bert than most. but some analysts are saying we're seeing some ads much earlier than usual, what do you think? >> reporter: absolutely. it's completely correct. we're seeing negative adser-year-old from democratic incumbents and it's an effort to try to localize the race. as you saw in the ad with mr. alan grayson against webster, he's trying to present webster is too far to the right for the localized district in florida. those are the constituents he's playing to. we've also seen they're going really far back into all types of things from the candidates' past, divorce filings, better business bureau recommendations. take a look into ohio, a democratic incumbent looking at tom gandy and hess past as a

used car salesman. >> millionaire used car salesman tom gandy is trying to ride his reputation in congress. he should be trying to hide it. sued by customers for fraudulent and deceptive practices. two "f" from the better business bureau. it's buyer beware. >> reporter: there you see it, that ad is pretty stinging, shall we say there, richard. in another thing that a lot of democrats have said to me, like, look, the reason we have to go negative this early on we're wor worried about the influence of third party groups spending on opponents later on in the race. we need to define the message to the voters now and defining our opponent candidates. a lot of states have early voting. democratic incumbents want you to get the idea this is what the republican is like and then vote for them right now. >> earth way you look at it it is entertaining, no matter what said side you sit on.

>> reporter: it is entertaining. a lot of these things go straight to youtube, a lot don't go on tv. you say production quality they have is quite striking. >> striking, to say the least, my friend. luke russert on capitol hill, thanks. >> reporter: be well. a new poll shows that democrats are gaining the upper hand, meanwhile, in two closely-watched races in california. in the race for governor, jerry brown has a five-point lead over republican billionaire meg whitman. she's the former ceo of ebay who has spent $110 million of her own money in the race. then in the u.s. senate race, democratic incumbent barbara boxer has an it's a-point average over challenger carly fiorina, former head of hp, hewlett-packard. a tough fight for boxer who is facing her stiffest challenge ever for the seat. turning to the three-way u.s. senate showdown on the opposite coast in florida, republican mark rubio is gaining ground on

independent governor charlie crist, now leading by 12 points. the poll showing kendrick meek has closed the gap with crist. he is going to fight and he says he is going to use rocks. the bishop abuccused of coercin young men to have sex speaks out. legalizing marijuana in the state, residents have flip-flopped their view. i want to give my 5 employees health insurance, but i just can't afford it. i have diabetes. i didn't miss a premium payment for 10 years. and i'm worried if i lose my job, i won't be able to afford insurance. when i graduated from college, i lost my health insurance. the minute i got sick, i lost my insurance.

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>> thanks for staying with us. bishop eddie long vows to fight allegations from four young men who claim long used power and influence to coerce them into sexual relationships. at yesterday's services with a lot of eyes watching, long broke his silence about the scandal that rocked new birth in addition area baptist church last week. take a listen. >> i'm not the man that's being portrayed on the television.

that's not me. that is not me. i am not a perfect man, but this thing, i'm going to fight. i feel like david against goliath, but i got five rocks and i haven't thrown one yet. >> traveling to georgia to attend sunday's sermons, she's here with us, professor of the university of pennsylvania who special identifies in african-american religious history. also edward wycoff williams an analyst, contributor to thegrio.com. i want to start with what the reaction was at the sermon yesterday. listen to some parishioners and what they said after bishop long finished his message. >> he never said anything specific about the situation. he just said that i guess you

meet challenges in life and you stand up to adversity and he's basically going to stand tall. >> he avoided the subject, he said what he wanted to say and what he wanted to get out. >> he made it plain and clear, he been through many things but this thing right here is not him. >> i'm very satisfied with what i heard. he's a human being, we all are, i don't believe that this is really going to be over until, you know, everything comes out. >> i want to start with you, wu we saw responses from the parishioners. you were inside. what was the sense of their reaction to what he was saying as it was happening? >> good morning. yes, i was there. it was amazing, it was quite a loud service, bombastic, very much behind bishop long 100%. what i thought was interesting was that, although it looked like business as usual, people were apprehensive looks on their faces as though that message was not enough for them.

he didn't quite go the whole nine yards to say i did not do this. so i think there's some healthy skepticism with some of the members, but for other members they're in love with their bishop and that's just that. >> you did see reaction on their face. let's go over to edward. you saw this, remotely, though. >> yes, i watched it online. >> what is your reaction? >> like anthea said, there's an element of the church behind their bishop, no matter what he did they would support him, whether it came out he molested these boys because they would support him. there's an element which are so focuses on faith that they are blinded by reality and that's problematic, particularly, i think in the black community where the black church has been the central institution ever since slavery, even before blacks were able to read, they had the bible. and so they were dictated this religion that now stands at the

center of our society. >> stay with me on this, because you wrote an article in an opinion piece over the weekend. i'm going to read a portion right now. you say, quote, perhaps the eddie long scandal can serve as a teachable moment for blacks to begin to confront faith-based homophob homophobia, sexual abuse and the consent of silence we justify in the name of god. that's what you wrote this weekend. if you could expand on that. >> yes. i think the fact bishop long did not speak to the charges has a lot to do, one, being advised by his lawyers not to but it speaks to the culture of silence. we don't talk about homosexuality in the black church and the black community in general. as a result of the silence, there's a lot of closetedness, what we have known as the down low. an element of african-american male behavior which remains closeted and silenced and back door and underground, and as a community we have to begin to address these issues because ultimately what we are doing is

perpetuating a vicious cycle where people are either having sex with males and feeling unable to express themselves in their communities or they're doing it in sexually deviant ways, as in this case, with an older man with young boys, which is really disruptive to our society. >> i have to give you 20 seconds on this. your thoughts with regard to what edward said there? >> in in my article i talked about "toy story 3" not being homophobia but sexophobia. if we only talk about homosexuality, this business sexuality in the black church, period. it's not just about what's being done to young boys or who is sleeping with who, it's the women who suffers for thousands upon thousands of services because they have had to have a relationship with pastors and nobody's talked about that and come out. what i think is important about this bishop long situation we can talk about the homophobia and the sexophobia in the black church today. >> thank you for your time this morning on this issue.

no doubt we'll be talking about this more. >> thank you. >> thank you. you know, big vote on extending the bush era tax cuts probably will not happen until after midterm elections and there's finger pointing on both sides. take a look at these helicopter moves. keep your eye on this. dipping right into the waters of lake tahoe. was it that hot? did the navy pods do anything wrong? we've got that. [ advisor 1 ] what do you see yourself doing one week, one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it.

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big oil and their backers are spending millions to scare us. saying it costs too much to break our dependence on oil.

what they're really doing is putting our security at risk. my big brother went to iraq to keep us safe. he came home in a flag-draped coffin. america lost another hero. big oil wants to talk about costs? don't let big oil lie to you about what our dependence really costs. welcome back to msnbc. i'm richard lui. half of the guns that cross state lines and were used in crimes last year were sold in just ten states, georgia, florida, virginia, texas, indiana, ohio, pennsylvania, north carolina, california, and arizona. now, there's a hearing today about the effort to remove wisconsin district attorney ken kratz from his post, under fire for sending racy text messages to five women. house majority leader steny hoyer not laughing about stephen

colbert's testimony on friday. he called it an embarrassment and not appropriate. tax cuts on hold, lawmakers will not vote to extend the bush era tax cuts until after the midterm elections. in an nbc news exclusive this morning, president obama insisted that those tax cuts be extended for everyone but the wealthiest americans. >> what we need is tax cuts for the middle class who are struggling and if they get a tax cut, they're likely to spend it, which means that a small business is potentially going to get a customer and we're going to see job growth. so we can't spend $700 billion on a tax cut that is not going to spur job growth. >> republicans are demanding democrats schedule a vote to extend tax cuts before lawmakers go on recess next week. democrats accuse republicans of tying things up in the senate. five weeks until the midterms, by the way, and president obama is looking to fire up youth voter whose helped him get elected in hopes of

making them a game changer for democrats think november. he'll hold a conference call with college journalists today and tomorrow speak before thousands at a rally at university of wisconsin. this morning in an nbc exclusive interview with matt lauer, the president talked about what he's doing to get u.s. students ready for college. >> my administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers. we've got to boost performance in that area. we used to rank at the top. we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. >> that interview part of a weeklong nbc news event "education nation" an in-depth look at state of our children's schools. joining me now is political analyst richard wolffe, also the author of "renegade, the making of a president." how much faith does the white house have that they can get young people to the polls? >> reporter: well, what they

want to do is obviously re-create the coalition that took the president over the top in 2008 and those are the people who traditionally don't vote in midterms. they feel they have something to talk about with them, whether it's about education in general or specifics about the health care bill. one of the first provisions to kick in young students in wisconsin and elsewhere can stay on family health care policy right now. so that is a change which dauz peel to young voters but it's tough getting people out in the midterms. >> to your point of getting them to the midterms, take a look at this poll we've got here for you. it is recent poll from gallup that shows youth election attention has fallen from 79 to 19%, and add to this that you and i both know when we take a look at the presidential to midterm elections normally youth vote in terms of numbers goes down by half. is the president going after the wrong group? >> reporter: he's got to do that but he's got to do the other stuff this week, backyard

conversations, places like des moines, iowa, where the whole journey started, albuquerque, new mexico, and in virginia, where he's really got to talk about the economy. he's got to show that he gets it because older, middle class families turn up in midterms and they are unhappy where the economy is and consequently with president's performance. >> i've got another bunch of numbers for you. in a new political battle ground poll it says just 38% say the president deserves re-election while 57% would vote against him or for someone else. how much sway does the president have today? >> reporter: well,s that a good question. he's not on the ballot. you have to have a word of caution on the polls. if it's a referendum about obama as the republican party would want to be, democrats will not do well. when it comes to obama himself, the president is going to have a rival, and when it's a choice, he does a whole lot better. >> richard wolf, thank you. this morning, by the way, nbc news kicks off an

unprecedented look at state of public education in the united states. when asked to give america schools a letter grade 70% gave them either "c" or a "d" while 19% gave them an "a "s or a "b." according to the poll 53% cites elected officials, 50% said parents and 41% cited teachers' unions, 36% saying principals and administrators and 30% named teachers. this morning, matt lauer asked president obama how to inspire and recruit a new generation of teachers. >> teach for america program you, see the smartest kids in the country applying and often "times" having to be in waiting lists to get in. the problem is we can't attract great, young people to go into teaching. the problem is after two, three years they start dropping off. >> wendy copp president and founder of teacher for america, she joins us now as part of

"education nation "s that we are doing this week. when you hear what the president said he was asks in the interview about his daughters' education. let's dig into that a little bit. what was said about that, first, then we will get to the question, actually. >> given my position, if i wanted to find a great public school for malia and sasha to be in we could probably maneuver to do it. but the broader problem is for a mom or a dad who are, you know, working hard but don't have a bun. of connections. >> a bunch of connections because that's what it may take to get into a good school. is that the case that you're seeing across the country? >> well, we're working in the lowest income communities in the country, in schools that are serving, you know, 80% of the kids living below the poverty line and certainly if you look at the statistics, those schools are not changing the academic trajectory of the kids.

and clearly, when kids face so many extra challenges, given all of the challenge of poverty they need schools that will meet them with extra supports in order to help put them on a path to ensure that they do have the chance to attain an excellent education. the good news is, over the last 20 years since i've been in this, we now have so many examples in communities across the country it's possible to provide that kind of education. so the challenge now is, how do we scale it up? >> what is that solution? charter schools part of this? >> charter schools have shown us what is possible. you know, some charter schools. and i think the key is to realize that, you know, ultimately this is about tremendous talent and leadership at every level of the system, embracing a mission of, you know, transformational change for kids, and doing whatever it takes to meet those needs and we can do that within the traditional system, the charter system, but we need to step back, move beyond blame anything group and say, how can we work

together to do for all kid what we know is possible, thanks to the example of numbers of charter schools and growing numbers of traditional schools as well. >> it was so difficult, my mom taught for 25 years in an inner city school, very, very difficult to get resources. also the union was an important component in being able to help all of these students here. talk about unions and how they're working with teachers to achieve what you'd like to achieve. >> well, ooh think ultimately, you know unions cropped up initially to represent, as you say, the interests of some of the most fundamental people in the picture, our teachers. i think what's happens is we've got a deeply systemic problem here where, as i mentioned, kids face extra challenges and they're showing up at school systems that arguably haven't had the mission historically of putting kids who face extra challenges on a level playing field. so we've got to move beyond blaming any one group in the system. i think what we're seeing in

some communities is evidence of everyone coming together, school administrations, principals, teachers, teachers' unions and saying what do we need to do together to create essentially a new, redefined system that does meet neat need of all of the kids. >> remove constraints, stay positive is your message? >> yes. >> wendy kopp, thanks. they're republican and they're proud. now they're raising aawareness for gay rights but the group's main focus, the economy. i know w works differently than many other allergy medications. hoo? omnaris. [ men ] omnaris -- to the nose! [ man ] did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic inflammation? omnaris relieves your symptoms by fighting inflammation. side effects may include headache, nosebleed, and sore throat. [ inhales deeply ] i told my allergy symptoms to take a hike. omnaris. ask your doctor. battling nasal allergy symptoms? omnaris combats the cause. get omnaris for $11 at omnaris.com. battling nasal allergy symptoms? omnaris combats the cause.

words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. ♪ [ male announcer ] we touch a lot of things throughout the day. so it's nice that clorox disinfecting products help kill the germs that can live on surfaces for up to 48 hours. ♪ feels sweet when i can touch you ♪ [ male announcer ] throughout our lives, we encounter new opportunities. at the hartford we can help you pursue them with confidence. ♪ by helping you prepare for your financial future...

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a stunt, practice maneuver or hotdogging what the navy is investigating after the tourist captures cell phone video of two navy helicopters dipping into lake tahoe two weeks ago, that's in california. two navy mh-60 romeo helicopters such as these based out of san diego hovering over the lake and then dropping to the lake

for a few seconds before regaining altitude. the he'ilos suffers more than $50,000 worth of damage. jim? >> reporter: richard what you don't see in the remarkable video is just moments before, that second helicopter to the left also dipped into the waters of lake tahoe before it, tooing ascended to safety. now navy officials stress that these two helicopters were not operating on any kind of training mission whatsoever. they were transiting from one spot to another. when, according to navy officials the crews allegedly decided that there they were going to take happy snaps hovering over lake tahoe with a majestic mountains in the background. when that photo op went terribly wrong. what's unclear at this point is whether the pilot s intentionaly dipped into the water but a navy mishap board, apparently according to navy officials were told the pilots were attempting

to hoover but because of the at tude and the weight of the helicopter they involuntary descended into the water and accelerated out of it and, quite frankly, just barely averted disaster. they were very lucky. what may not be so lucky for the two crews is that they may be grounded, as far as the military's concerned, for life at what some navy officials think was pretty much a stunt. >> surreal video when you take a look at it. majestic mountains behind it, they sit at high altitudes. thank you. major attitude change in california on pot. nearly half of californians' prospective vote flrz favor of legalizing marijuana use according to a few field poll. the numbers are flipped on prop 19 since our july poll. that's a major change in the direction of the public's feelings on legalizing

marijuana. the first ballots for the november 2nd election will be cast starting on october 4th. maybe you want school kids to have more exposure to the arts. maybe you want to provide meals for the needy. or maybe you want to help when the unexpected happens. whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer, or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ] [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ]

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a right wing movement of conservative gays is gaining ground and proving right now more americans and concerned about the economy than social issues. they've been pegged as the tea party of gay rights. christopher barren the chairman of go proud. let's start with that. why might the organization be pegs as the tea party of gay rights? >> we're anti-establishment. be honest, the gay establishment here in washington, d.c., has failed average gay and lesbian folks and it's not surprising there would be a hunger in the community for voices that are willing to stand up to the establishment, and that's exactly what goproud does every single day.

>> what is drawing gays to your organization? >> we believe the government doesn't have all of thence answers. often the government is the problem. just like most average americans, most of the gay and lesbian folks i know want the government out of their lives, not in it. >> how do you reconcile your social views when you look at your conservative fiscal views and try to put those two together, because on the surface some might think that you might be diametric cakalpocal opposes soebl social positions. believe are consistently conservative on issue youshgz know, is a problem for the republican party not a problem for the conservative movement. i would say secondly i believe our position on social issues getting the government out of these issues is fundamental conservative. you can't call yourself a limited government conservative

and want to be putting the government into people's bedrooms any more than into their boardrooms. >> how is your organization different than the log cabin republicans? >> we're different because we're not part of the failed washington establishment. >> okay. bottom line. >> we're -- we're unabashedly conservative. we're not the organization looking to change the republican party into the party of -- we're committed conservatives and unapologetic about our commitments to the political movements. >> thank you for joining us today on goproud. appreciate your time. that does it for me. i'm richard lui in for chris jansing monday. see you back here at 3:00 eastern. thomas roberts will pick things up shortly. but we will have more of nbc's special coverage when he gets here of "education nations" matt lauer's interview with president obama. plus the leader of a georgia megachurch vows to fight

allegations he manipulated four young male parishioners into a sexual relationship. we'll look at fallout from the scandal and what happens now. hey, lawrence, my parents want to talk to you. oh. about what? uh, they don't really think you're an exchange student. what? they think you're a businessman, using our house to meet new clients in china. for reals, player? [ woman speaks chinese ] they overheard a phone call. [ speaks chinese ] something about shipping with fedex to shanghai. and then you opened a bottle of champagne. that was for a science project. [ man and woman speaking chinese ] i'm late for...soccer... rehearsal.

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hi, everybody, good morning, i'm thomas roberts in for tamron hall. right now on msnbc -- a third of our kids are dropping out. >> nothing more important the president saying that he's ready to act to make the u.s. once again becoming a world leader in education. msnbc examining the challenges as well as solutions needed to create an education nation. what's next? the head of a georgia megachurch speaks out about allegations by young male parishioners that he lured them into a sexual relationship but is it a little -- is it too little, too late. dangerous deadline. what will happen to middle east peace talks now that a settlement construction ban hasek pyred. plus, place yourself, emergency landing in a major

u.s. airport turning a pilot into a modern day hero. great to have you with us, everybody. welcome to our special coverage of "education nation"s this week. taking an unprecedented look at nation's schools. live pictures from a kind of rainy rockefeller plaza that has been turned into a learning plaza for education nation summit. we're bringing together teachers, parents, executives and union leaders with one aim, solutions to give american you students a better education. we should have invited mother nature. a new poll finds 58% of americans believe public schools need major changes or a complete overhaul. 5% think public schools work well and 36% think minor changes are needed. when asked to give america's schools a letter grade 70% gave them either a "c" or a "d," 19% gave them an "a" or a "b." who is to blame?